Donald Trump has found himself locked in another battle – this time with Pope Leo XIV. The supposedly peace-loving President launched a war of words with the Pope in a bizarre rant in which he branded the pontiff “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”.
The Orange Manbaby doubled down on his social media post by telling reporters hes “not a fan”. The blistering attack came after head of the Catholic Church demanded an end to war in the Middle East, calling Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation “unacceptable”.
Here, your Daily Star takes a look at the tale of the tape as the two US heavyweights battle it out publicly.
The vital statistics
Age: Donald Trump – 79, Pope Leo – 70. The Pontiff has the advantage in the age stakes as he is nine years younger than Trump.
Weight: The White House listed Trump as weighing 224lbs (around 16st) when it released his annual physical report last year. The Pope’s weight is not publicly available.
Height: Donald Trump was listed as 6ft 3in by the White House when they released his annual medical report last year. But that claim has been mocked online numerous times, most notably when he stood next to a 6ft 1in Polish politician, who towered over Trump.
Pope Leo XIV is said to be around 5ft 10in, although his hat takes him to around 6ft.
Exercise regime: Trump once described himself as “the healthiest president that’s ever lived”. But the cheeseburger-loving president recently revealed he does not get regular exercise because he finds it “boring”.
He told the Wall Street Journal: “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me.” He does, however, famously love a round of golf and has experience in the WWE, though he never fought in the ring.
By contrast, Pope Leo has maintained an intense fitness routine at a gym in Rome, where his trainer was stunned to discover his true identity. Valerio Masella said when he saw the regular gymgoer on the balcony of St Peter’s: “I thought to myself, ‘I train this person!'”
The papal workout is said to include 10 minutes on the exercise bike followed by a 10-minute brisk walk on the treadmill before working out on the weights, including a low pulley row machine with an impressive 25kg each side.
A reporter who tried to recreate the Pope’s training plan said: “After doing 10, I was grimacing, so if the leader of world’s 1.4 billion Catholics can do it, he’s pretty trim under his cassock.”
Valerio told the Times last year: “For a man of 69, he was surprisingly fit — you could see he exercised.”
The viral statistics
Trump’s first outburst came on his Truth Social platform, where he has 12.4million followers. The Pope is not on that platform, but has more than 17million followers on X, formerly Twitter, where Trump has 111.2million followers, despite posting much less often on there.
The Pope has 14.2 million followers on Instagram, where Trump has 44.2million.
Other work
Before becoming president, Trump worked for his wealthy family’s real estate business in New York, which he renamed the Trump Organisation and set about buying and building skyscrapers, casinos, golf courses and plush hotels.
He filed for six business bankruptcies in the 1990s and 2000s as a number of side ventures went bust, but the billionaire hosted reality TV show the Apprentice from 2004 to 2015, before he ran for his first term as president.
The Pope, born Robert Francis Prevost in the US, spent 20 years in Peru as a missionary and a bishop before being elected the Prior Provincial of the Order of St. Augustine’s Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Chicago. He later worked as a key official in the Vatican before being elected as the first American Pope in 2025.
Verdict:
In a straight fight, Pope Leo likely has the upper hand due to his youth, fitness levels and strength. He would likely last longer in a boxing match due to his superior fitness and at least win on points.
And while Trump would have the backing of the US military in war, Pope Leo XIV would likely have 1.4billion Catholics – including 70 million Americans, which includes Trump’s Vice President – in his corner. And he has God on his side. The Pope wins.
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